To Die A Hero
by Myomi-chan
Summary: SasuSaku, NaruHina. Because nobody told you dreams end, did they? A bloodline transferred by direct contact is given to Sakura. She struggles to master it; meanwhile, Sasuke begins to assemble Team Hebi. The price of Sakura's new power is grave: every time she uses it, she loses a part of her soul. Can she bring Sasuke back - and still retain her humanity?
1. Chapter 1

To Die A Hero

**Description: SasuSaku, NaruHina. Because nobody told you dreams end, did they?**

**Disclaimer: Naruto is Kishimoto's.**

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It's night.

There's a simplicity that comes over the world when darkness shrouds the land, when stars wink silently against a blue-black emptiness, when light and truth hide beneath shadows and ambiguity.

And here she is, standing outside, all alone. The night's the same as it always is. Night is deceivingly simple, she thinks. Because there's nowhere to hide a lie in an already pitch-black space. There's nothing to run from if you can't see anything. There's nothing to fear, if you're not scared of shadows.

She thinks these things as she walks out the gates. Memories, unbidden yet always welcome, spring forth to the forefront of her mind, bringing a soft, faint smile to her lips. She sees Naruto complaining loudly to Kakashi-sensei, while Sasuke pointedly ignores their chatter.

She used to enjoy watching from behind them.

Now, it makes her want to scream.

But it's too quiet, too nostalgaic, too simple to scream into the nothingness of the evening, and so she doesn't. Instead, she looks down at the cobblestone path leading out of Konoha. She's walked this road a thousand times, maybe more, but the stones beneath her sandals are still strong. They don't wear away after years of use, after years of being trod upon, of being beaten by the wind and battered by dirt and debris. The cobblestones are small, but strong.

She wishes she could say the same for herself.

Because even after years of training, of years of devoting herself to that one cause - to be better, to be their equal, to bring him home - even after years of hard work and grueling practice and tears and cuts and broken bones and broken hearts, she's still not strong. Nowhere near what she needs to be.

She stops by that all-familiar bench. She's come here so often lately. After what happened here - her words, his words, a jab of pain, and nothing - she used to avoid this spot like the plague. It was a reminder of everything she had been: weak, useless, hopeless, naiive. Even being near it always brought a sense of unease, of restlessness, and she always hurried past this spot if she could manage it. As if even being near it would make some of her old self rise up again, some of that former weakness rub off on her.

But here she is, after years of avoiding this place. This cracked placeholder, this broken piece of her past, of who she used to be, a reminder of all her past failures and current shortcomings.

After a brief hesitation, Sakura sits down. The stone is cold against the bare skin exposed from her shorts and skirt. She shivers involuntarily. The trees on either side of the stone road rustle faintly as a wind picks up, blowing her pink tresses into her face. She brushes them aside, tucks them behind her ears, and lets out a sigh.

What is she doing here, anyway?

It isn't as if she has any particular reason to be out right now. She could be at the hospital, tending to those in need of her healing skills; she could be training, honing, sharpening herself, so that maybe she could match her boys someday; she could be at home, getting ready for bed, preparing herself for another day as a kunoichi.

But she isn't. She's here, at night, with wind kissing her cheeks and memories haunting her mind.

_If he goes, I'll tell the Hokage._ Stupid.

_If he goes, I can stop him._ Stupid.

_If he goes, I'll go with him._ So **_stupid._**

How could she have been so naiive, so gullibly hopeful? How could she have believed she was capable of any of those things?

She looks up at the stars. They seem so far away. They _ARE_ so far away. Just like the past that she would never be able to reclaim, like all those memories she and her team had missed out on. Like all those empty hopes and dreams they'd all voiced when they'd first become a team, before everything had become so impossibly complex. The bitterness that she can never escape, her hatred of herself, the disgust with which she looks upon her own inability to _do_ something, is much closer, much more real to her, than those tendrils of light reflected by stars that had long since ceased to give off any real brightness.

She closes her eyes, and remembers those old voiced hopes.

She used to dream.

Silly things, little girl dreams. Dreams of princesses and knights in shining armor and rainbows and castles and love that conquers all. But she's a kunoichi. A different kind of princess, crowned with a headband, a kunoichi is her own knight, only without the shining armor; there are no rainbows, there are no castles, and love doesn't - _can't_ - exist. Being a kunoichi means ruling a different kind of kingdom, one of battle and blood, of quick thinking and even quicker reflexes. This kind of princess doesn't cry when she gets hurt, doesn't show her tears to her subjects, doesn't negotiate treaties - she bleeds, she hides behind a mask of steeliness, and she kills on sight, by instinct, with no regrets. There's no room for feelings, for things that can cloud her judgement, for things that might make her go weak in the knees. There's no time for being a damsel-in-distress in a kunoichi's line of work. She kills, and moves on, doesn't think about life or death or fear - she just exists, survives, does as she's told to do. She is a weapon, not a human.

Sakura reopens her eyes, stares down at her pale skin, looks with disdain upon her scrawny little body that is so powerful yet so weak at the same time.

Ever since that night, she hasn't had dreams.

She's had rest, of course - the desperate kind, like the type she used to get after staying up late into the early morning studying for Academy exams. The dead-tired, asleep-before-you-hit-the-pillow kind, the kind where your brain's too tired to come up with dreams to entertain you with, so just gives you a few precious hours of blankness instead, of not having to care about or feel anything.

But she hasn't had dreams since then. Not since Sasuke left her with a broken heart, out cold, on this bench, all alone, with nothing but her own regret and weakness to remember him by.

But in a twisted way, it makes sense. Because her old dreams were like fool's gold: pretty, but worthless. Foolish ideas chased by a naiive mind before reality sets in. The workings of a child's heart, of a simplistic view of the world. The wistful wishes of a young girl blinded by an impossible love. Again: pretty, but worth nothing.

Kind of like her.

_Exactly_ like her.

She feels fatigue clawing at her body. Even being here for these few minutes has been so mentally taxing, so heartbreakingly painful, that she's ready to cave, ready to curl up and give in again to the bliss of dreamless sleep, of uncaring limbo. But she's not ready. Not yet.

There's a reason she's here tonight, even if she doesn't know what it is.

The wind calms down, and by now her skin and the bench beneath it are both cold to the touch. She's _definitely_ freezing, but she's not about to get up and leave. Green eyes squint up at the moon, almost accusingly.

_It's not fair,_ she thinks vehemently. **_It's not fair!_**

She's been through a lot, too. Sasuke and Naruto, they've both lost their families. But _she's_ lost _them_, and they're her family, too, and doesn't that count for something? Yes, it has to, otherwise she wouldn't feel the pain she does sometimes when she's made aware of her loneliness by other teams, by other couples, by groups of friends laughing together as they walk past her. She's all alone, even if Naruto's with her sometimes. She can laugh with him, but he's so far ahead of her, so far beyond her, that laughter seems empty, hollow. She's nowhere near him or Sasuke. She absolutely longs to be, desperately needs to be, with them, at their level, equal to them, but she isn't. It's the cruelty of life that holds her back, the unluckiness of her own limitations, of her own human faults and weaknesses, that keep her from pursuing them. If she had it her way, she'd be right there with them, walking hand-in-hand with them, but she isn't. It can't happen that way, not with how she is now, and even if she works herself to the best she can be, even if she struggles and trains, endures brutal punches and takes shattering hits, spars until her knuckles bleed, until her calluses become so painful they numb themselves, until every last human, frail little flaw has been erased from her (which is impossible, she knows), she would still be miles away from them.

Her boys, they're capable of so much.

And she isn't.

She's a kunoichi. She does her best not to cry for being alone, out in the simple night that holds only the stark truth, in the pale moonlight that doesn't lie to her. But since she's weak, and since she's got limits, and because she's so _goddamn__** HUMAN**_, she feels tears welling in her eyes.

She stands abruptly, hops off the bench as if suddenly burned by the cold stone, wipes her tears away furiously, and whips around, walking briskly back towards Konoha's front gates. Her sandals slap against the cobblestone pathway, clacking loudly as she storms along, impossibly angry at herself and her own weakness, impediments created by just being who she is, hopelessly lost and confused.

But she knows one thing for sure.

She's a kunoichi, and she'll see this damned mission through to the end, even though it's a broken dream, shattered porcelain that can never fit quite right again.

She'll bring Sasuke home, even if it kills her.

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**A/N: Short, but melodramatic. Not sure whether to make this a one-shot series, or pick up where I left off with it... We'll see. **

**Thanks for reading, and review, please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**To Die A Hero  
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**Chapter 01: Battle**

******Disclaimer: I own many things, but Naruto is not one of them.**

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Moonbeams light her path. She's got a backpack slung over both her shoulders. It holds everything she needs, along with a few things she doesn't, but the most prominent weight of all is the weight of her Konoha forehead protector, which bounces faintly against her head every time she leaps off the branch of a tree. It shouldn't bother her, but it does.

Because what she's doing is exactly what Sasuke did to her, only worse, because she's chasing after something that probably doesn't exist anymore, trying to salvage something that's been broken for the longest time.

She's going after Sasuke.

Although why, she doesn't know.

But tonight, what matters most is that she's not going to settle for trailing behind her boys anymore. She isn't Naruto, and she isn't Sasuke, but she's Sakura, and maybe the new Sakura can bring Sasuke back. Maybe.

It's all she can do to hope.

The air is still rich with the musty scent of damp leaves and the whispers of passion, and she instinctively knows it's midnight. The forest around her is dark, and she's covered in its foliage. She's going as fast as she can, because once morning comes, they'll know she's left. Naruto will surely come after her, and Tsunade won't let him go alone.

She needs to put distance between them first.

Pumping chakra into her feet, she continues to push off with more force, more purpose. She's not working up a sweat by any means, but she knows she will by the time dawn comes. In the meantime, she increases her speed steadily, ignoring her body's yearnings for rest and sleep.

She's a kunoichi. She can handle this.

But what she isn't prepared for is the sudden disturbance she feels, the pulse of chakra released from about a mile ahead of her. It's astounding, and stops her in her tracks, senses on high alert. She does her best not to breathe at all, instead prodding carefully with her own chakra. It's a warm one, which means there's no animosity in it. This aura is not one she recognizes.

But then, it's mingled with others she doesn't know, too. The others are smaller, and take her longer to detect, but they're easier to distinguish once she does. They're dangerous, laced with killing intent. It's a complex web of feelings permeating the area, and she realizes suddenly that there is a battle up ahead. If she goes that way, she'll more than likely be caught up in it.

If she wants to escape Konoha tonight, she can't go that way.

Without another moment to waste, she springs towards the warring auras.

She's close enough to home that she can lie and explain things away if she needs to, but she doesn't want to abandon her home, not like Sasuke did. She loves Konoha, and she isn't a traitor.

If this is a potential danger to her village, she'll give up her own selfish hopes in a heartbeat in order to protect those who are precious to her.

While she hops closer, she counts five distinct chakra signatures. There's the large, warm one, of course, and then four of the more sinister ones. They're not large enough or powerful enough to be Akatsuki members, she realizes, but they're still formidable, particularly the warm one.

She hears the clashes and yells long before she reaches the battle. She crouches in a tree overhead, sweeping the clearing, gauging what's happening, who's winning, who's fighting whom.

A middle-aged woman is defending herself against four attacking shinobi. Green eyes widen as she realizes that the woman has no weapons, and is holding her own solely with hand-to-hand combat, and skirting the ninja weapons thrown and sliced at her.

But despite the woman's efforts, she hasn't dodged everything.

Sakura's eyes immediately hone in on the spreading red wound in the woman's stomach. And Sakura already notices the diminishing strength in the woman's attacks. She won't hold out for much longer.

Sakura takes this as her cue to swoop in.

She leaps from the tree, twirls, and aims her fist towards the nearest assailant. Taken unawares, her fist crashes into him with a satisfying crunch, and he literally flies into the forest, hitting a tree with such force that it keels over. Sakura's been noticed by the others, and as one of the shinobi continues to attack the woman, the other two approach the kunoichi, intending to quickly dispose of her. One is an older man, with a brown moustache that hangs limply; the other is a few years older than her, with a lanky figure. She pushes chakra into her hands and rushes them; the lanky one is taken by surprise. Sakura uses this to her advantage and throws a punch at him. He barely dodges, and she leaps to avoid the kunai the other shinobi throws at her. She then sweeps her leg around, spinning, and kicks the lanky one hard in the face. Another crunch, and he topples sideways.

She rolls and leaps not even a second before senbon imbed in the ground where she'd been. Her eyes narrow at the moustache shinobi. He's preparing to throw more weapons at her, but two can play at that game. She grabs kunai and shuriken of her own and tosses them at him. He dodges, but Sakura's ready; she launches herself into the air as well, quickly calculates where the man will land, and throws a kunai with an exploding tag. She doubts it will kill him, but it gives her the opportunity to land near the ninja attacking the woman. She swings her right leg around and trips him, and the middle-aged woman lashes out with her own kicks at the unbalanced shinobi. Sakura rolls away and draws a kunai, using it to shield herself from the slash of the moustache shinobi's own throwing knife. Not pausing, she pushes chakra into her balled-up left fist and shoves it into her enemy's stomach; she breaks some of his ribs, and as his grip slackens on his kunai, she sends him tumbling onto the ground. He's out cold. She turns back to the last shinobi, who has recovered and stands at a distance from the woman. He is panting, but grinning, and Sakura realizes a second too late why.

She reaches out with her hand –

-and the woman crumples to the ground, senbon decorating her back. In a flash, sSakura's in front of the shinobi, who isn't expecting her. She lets out a furious shriek and releases a series of kicks and punches that wipe the shinobi out. When he's lying on the ground, motionless, Sakura dashes back to the middle-aged woman, whose breathing is quick and uneven.

"It's okay," Sakura says as soothingly as she can. She assesses the damage with her chakra and bites her lip. The woman has serious internal injuries, and with the amount of blood she's lost...

"W-Wait..." The woman chokes out. Sakura hushes her, and summons chakra to her palms. She presses it lightly on the woman's back, and carefuly removes each senbon, immediately healing the flesh wound as she does. Once she's done this, she focuses on the internal bleeding, specifically the wounds inflicted by the woman's organs. First she heals around the heart, but it's a losing battle' with every one wound she heals, two more burst open, and it's all Sakura can do to keep trying, to keep fighting.

"It'll be fine, it'll be fine," she repeats over and over, but she knows better, and the woman does, too. She coughs and groans, and Sakura soothes her with words that mean nothing. Sakura heals the front injury, too, in the futile hope that maybe it can buy her some more precious time, and as she does, blood drips onto her, stains her skin and clothing a dark red, made darker still by the fog of blackness that night hangs over them. The woman reaches her hand towards her, and it's trembling as it wraps weakly around Sakura's wrist.

"Wait..." The woman repeats. Sakura wants to scream in frustration – this wasn't how tonight was supposed to go, and this _wasn't_ supposed to be another reminder of her own weaknesses, of her own disabilities – but she indulges the woman with a smile that doesn't reach her green eyes.

"Yes?" she asks quietly.

The woman takes a shuttering breath, and then her nail pierces Sakura's wrist.

At first Sakura assumes it's just the pain that makes the woman do it, the natural instinct to cringe and clench something to relieve tension, but then she realizes it's not – the woman is chanting something, something low and soft, that Sakura can't hear or understand – and now something is suddenly invading her, seeping into her veins – it's the blood, she half-realizes; the woman's blood is mingling with her own – and fiery pain, intense, earth-shattering fire engulfing her from within – and then –

"Thank you."

The woman's heart stops.

And Sakura is engulfed by darkness.

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She wakes up a few hours after dawn. She's sore all over; her body aches, and she feels almost feverish, like she's been wracked with chills and spasms. She opens her eyes, sees a pale pink, nearly creamy white sky above her, and suddenly, everything comes rushing back to her. She sits up with a gasp, realizing that the reason she's cold is because she's half-lying in a pool of blood. It's not her own. Sakura turns to see the woman, eyes closed, body splayed almost peacefully in the clearing, corpse stiller than the dirt beneath them. Sakura scoots closer to her, lightly touches the pulse by instinct – more because it's been drilled into her by Tsunade and years of medic training and hospital duty and ninja missions than for actual necessity – and feels nothing but the woman's lukewarm skin, the body's warmth mostly gone by now. She feels tears in her eyes, and sits in utter despair in the blood of yet another person whom she's lost.

God, she thinks, when will it end? She looks at her palms, her useless hands, and wants to cry even more, but she doesn't. She can't. She's a kunoichi.

She just wishes she were a stronger one. She was completely capable of saving this woman, if only she'd acted faster, moved quicker, been more deadly, hadn't hesitated in any movements. Of she had only intervened sooner –

No, she cuts herself off. I did all I could. She wipes her tears away, scowls when she realizes she's just put more blood, both crusted and liquid, on her face, and looks around. The clearing is still a mess from the battle from earlier, and her eyes rake across the scene. The other shinobi – she knows the last one is dead, for sure, but the other two, she doesn't know. And she realizes belatedly that the one she'd sent careening into the forest earlier could very well have escaped. She grits her teeth and forces herself to stand, ignoring the urge to wince as her muscles creak in protest. Good grief, is she really so out of shape that a battle like this one has her all sore and banged up?

No.

It's whatever the woman did to her, whatever jutsu she'd fallen victim to, that's caused this. As she approaches the closest shinobi – the lanky one – she realizes that her own chakra signature is different. It startles her, but she can't pause to ponder it – necessity drives her right now. She checks his pulse, finds he's alive, and after running a quick chakra scan of him, discovers he has enough damage to be wiped out for most of the day, if not more. Satisfied, she checks the moustache man. He's dead – the broken rib she gave him punctured a lung, and his body couldn't take the trauma. She bites back the guilt that threatens to overtake her – it doesnt matter who they were, or if they had precious people, too, because they were the enemy, and she had acted on instinct. She checks the third body, just to confirm that the man is also dead, before returning her attention to the woman.

She can't bury her, but she can take her back to Konoha. She won't leave her out here, to the elements, and if five shinobi had found it worth their time to attack her, then she had a secret.

And even if she was dead, that didn't mean her secret couldn't fall into the wrong hands.

So Sakura finishes healing the flesh wounds she couldn't last night, dries the woman's body off as best she can, dries _herself_ off as best she can, and then lifts the woman onto her back. She slings her backpack onto her front – it's a little awkward, but she can manage. She kicks off into the trees, and heads towards where she'd sent the first ninja careening into the trees. She finds his dead body crumpled beside the uprooted tree and, satisfied, hurries back to Konoha.

She doubts anyone will care that she has a backpack, that anyone will even think of what it implies, of what she had been doing with it outside the village gates. Not with the woman's body, and the lanky shinobi lying unconscious in the forest, to pay more attention to.

Sakura frowns as she pumps chakra to her feet. What is it that's changed? She can't quite put her finger on it. She doesn't think it's life-threatening, but it's... different, somehow. She can't explain it. It's baffling. It seems familiar, too, but...?

Then it dawns on her.

The warmth she felt from the woman's aura before she entered the battle.

It's mixed in with her own chakra.

Sakura barely manages to stay upright at this realization. She stops on a branch, stunned, and stands there for some time, letting it sink in.

Whatever the woman had done, she'd somehow managed to transfer some of her chakra to Sakura.

But that seems impossible. Through all her learning, Sakura has never heard of it being possible to give your life essence to someone else. Not like this. Of course, you could push a bit into someone else – such as when she healed people, or when Chiyo had given her life force for Gaara's – but it faded quickly with time, dissipated and eventually distilled to nothingness by the other person's own blood, own chakra.

But for whatever reason, it hasn't: the woman's chakra force is blended equally with Sakura's, dominates it, in fact, and hasn't faded at all in the hours she's been unconscious. Sakura summons some to her hand and observes it, but it looks the same as it always does: light, opaque green, emerald that sparkles in her hands and makes her fingertips tingle. She allowes it to dissipate into the air around her, and it lets out the faintest of hisses. So the change isn't something that can be detected visually.

Her scowl deepens as she continues her way back to her village.

To think, hours ago, she'd been prepared to leave everything and everyone behind in the vain hope of chasing Sasuke down – and now, here she was again, returning. How typical. It almost makes her want to turn right around and head off again on her initial mission, but she can't. Not now. For one thing, she'd be caught, because there is no way she could put enough distance between herself and any tracking ninja now. And secondly (and more importantly), she _can't_ leave now. She could have potentially discovered a threat to her village, and until it is thoroughly investigated, she won't leave her beloved village. Until she knows it is relatively safe, she will stay.

Until she makes sure that she poses no danger to her comrades, she will not leave to find Sasuke.

She smiles bitterly at the thought.

As if.

As if _she c_ould ever be dangerous enough to be considered a threat to _any_one. If there's one thing she's learned, it's that despite all her effort, all her days and weeks and years of intense training, of putting everything she's got into everything she's done, she can _never_ amount to what she needs to. She can pour her heart and soul into her every movement, spend every waking moment in intense, focused sharpening of skills, pound the earth beneath her feet into dust, topple buildings, level mountains, and she's still nowhere good enough, nowhere near who she desperately needs to become. It's like all her hard work means nothing next to the hard cruel world; she is only what she's been dealt in life, and while she's made the most of it, it can never suffice. She'll always be Sakura. _Sakura. _And it's _terrible,_ but it's reality, and she knows she has to accept it.

But she can't, because if she does, it means she's trapped where she is. It means she can do nothing else.

And she _has_ to do to continue to grow, has to forever pursue her goals, because if she doesn't have those ancient dreams, those fleeting blooms of what-the-future-may-hold, then she has nothing.

And nobody can survive off nothing.

Her mind moves to Sasuke at this thought.

It's his dependence on hatred that's led him to this, but at least he has _that._ If he gives that up, though, he'd be just as lost as she is.

They're so similar, sometimes, when she thinks hard enough about it. They'll never be exactly the same, and she knows even this is probably stretching it, but maybe, just maybe, he clings to hatred because, just like her, it's all he has left, his only tether to reality, to life, to existence. It gives him purpose, just as striving to be better gives her life meaning.

All too soon, she finds herself at the front gates, and she's ripped from her thoughts.

She calls out to the chunin on duty at the gates, and they start. Rushing forward to help her, she informs them to alert the other shinobi of what's happened. Soon, the body of the woman is taken from her, to be sent to the morgue – but not before it's thoroughly looked over by a shinobi team - and Sakura hastens to Tsunade.

She's got a lot to explain, and she knows it'll take time to figure out how to say it.

But before she gets there, she drops by her apartment. She leaves her backpack by the door, hops into the shower. She lets the blood and the worry wash away, drowns herself in the warmth and steam, loses herself in a few precious moments of bliss and simplicity. Then she turns the water off, throws a towel around herself, gets a fresh pair of clothes. She wipes her headband off quickly – she'll clean it later, but for now, this will have to do – and heads out.

The sun is rising now. It's officially day, in every sense of the word, and she's not the only one up and about. Civilians and ninja alike begin to trickle onto the dusty Konoha roadways, and Sakura avoids them by hopping from roof to roof. It gets her there faster, and she doesn't have to deal with smiling at people she doesn't know, or deal with any questions or requests they might have of her. She doesn't hate people. She loves them, in fact. But she's the Fifth Hokage's pupil, one of Konoha's best medic-nin, and she's one of Hatake Kakashi's students. She's Uzumaki Naruto's friend, and a former teammate of Uchiha Sasuke – and all these things bring urgent questions and furtive glances from so many people every day of her life. It gets tiring, and right now, all Sakura wants to do is figure out what's happened to her, and whether her village is safe.

All she wants to do is hurry up and set things straight.

But that takes time, and she knows it, even as she pauses to tuck a wet lock of pink hair behind her ear before pushing the door to Tsunade's office open. Things don't happen overnight, and now that there are unanswered questions, she can't leave to try and drag back her old teammate. She's got to set things right here before she can set her own life in order again.

The village takes precedence over her own wants.

That's how it is, what it means, to be a kunoichi.

"Shishou."

Her teacher is asleep, a bottle of sake sitting on the table piled high with papers and scrolls. Groggily, Tsunade jerks awake, and her eyes narrow at Sakura.

"What?" she snaps. Like she's had a long night and Sakura disturbed her sleep. She probably did. Sakura's sure a shinobi came in and informed her sensei of what occurred easrlier, but judging by the nearly-empty bottle beside her teacher, she doubts Tsunade remembers it well.

"Report." She hesitates. "And... Something else."

Tsunade's awake now. She may be a drunk, but Sakura knows that Tsunade takes her job as the village protector seriously. She leans forward, eyes pressing Sakura for details.

"Well?" she asks. "Are you all right?"

"Aa," she replies. "I think so." She doesn't let her teacher interrupt as she begins to describe everything that happened, out there in the moonlight. She leaves out the details of why she'd been there, instead saying how she sensed the chakra signatures. Tsunade doesn't seem to notice her little white lie, and that's fine by Sakura. She'd rather it go unnoticed. It wouldn't do for anyone to become suspicious of her intentions. So she weaves the lie into the truth, and tells Tsunade about the woman and the moonlight and the blood, the battle and the pain, the morning and the warm chakra that mingles with her own, two different bloods interchanged and woven together inside her veins.

And when her sensei's frown has deepened to something unrecognizable by the end of her report, Sakura can't help but feel uneasy.

She expects her sensei to ask to see this, to observe Sakura's new chakra, but she doesn't. Instead, she rubs her temples, and orders Sakura to go home and rest. A bit relieved, since she can go home and forget about everything for a while, and a bit deflated, since this means Tsunade doesn't know what's happened to her, either, Sakura complies. She bows, exits, and goes home, washes the cloth of her headband until she knows the blood stains are pretty much gone, hangs it to dry, and bundles herself beneath her sheets and blankets, curls into a ball, settles into her plush, warm, comfortable bed, snuggles into her fluffy pillows, and sleeps, falls into a heavenly limbo between life and nothing, where she doesn't have a care in the world.

And, as usual, no dream accompanies her sleep, which suits her just fine.

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**A/N: Well, at least this chapter got to the 3,500-word count goal I had for myself. XD So, this has been floating around my head for qute some time now, and I decided I'd go ahead and make it a story instead of a collection of one-shots, which was what I originally had intended for it to be. Thank me later. And sorry for not updating other stories – rest assured, I'm working on them. ^_^ **

**Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review~~!**


	3. Chapter 3

**To Die A Hero**

**Chapter 02: Blood**

**Disclaimer: I own many things, but Naruto is not one of them.**

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When she wakes up, she chooses to lie with her eyes closed, basking in the simplicity of awakening to the quiet peace of sunlight filtering through sheer curtains and the soft hum of the air conditioner. She spends quite some time like this, just resting in silence, before forcing herself to open her eyes and sit up. Her pink hair tumbles in curls and waves around her, a mass of tangles and knots that she'll need to comb out. She looks around, because even when waking up, a kunoichi is alert. She probes the area with her chakra and finds that the streets outside are quite crowded. The sunshine is bright, which means she's overslept. Not that she's on duty. But she usually prefers to wake up early, both to stay on schedule for early morning missions and to just relish the joy she finds in waking up just as the world around her does. But she was too tired for that today, apparently.

Yawning, she stretches, then begins to slide out of her bed, reaching to pull the covers away from her body so she can swing her feet onto the hardwood floors.

She freezes.

Her wrist is green.

She examines it more closely, and finds that it is specifically the scratch marks from the woman yesterday that have swollen into angry bulges. She frowns and runs her other palm along it, pushing chakra to her fingertips. She could have sworn she had healed these wounds yesterday... This only makes her scowl darker as she seals the punctures once more. Hopefully this time they'll stay sealed. But she'll be sure to mention it to her sensei, just in case.

She runs a hand through her messy pink locks, sighs, and gets up. She heads to the kitchen and makes scrambled eggs for herself. She goes about her daily morning motions, and soon, she's groomed and prepared for another day. She ties on her hitai-ate for the finishing touch, fluffs her pink hair behind it, and grabs her apartment keys off her countertop, sliding them into her weapons holster after locking the door behind her. Then she roof-hops to the Hokage's office, intent on receiving her mission for the day.

Even when she isn't officially "on duty," a kunoichi of her high caliber (_Still not high enough, though, _a voice whispers in the back of her head) _always_ has duties to attend to in order to help keep her village running smoothly. Usually, this means she works shifts at the hospital, or runs errands for the Hokage or other high-ranking shinobi.

Sakura understands that, because of what's happened, she probably won't be sent on a mission any time soon, which means these remedial, but nonetheless essential, tasks will be hers to oversee for the next few days, possibly weeks. It all depends on what Tsunade says, if her shishou can figure out what's been done to her.

As soon as she walks in, Tsunade stands up sharply from her desk, dropping her pen on top of the paper she'd probably meant to sign.

"Close the door," she tells Sakura. The pink-haired kunoichi responds immediately, twirling and shutting the door behind her. She pushes her hybrid chakra into the doorknob and sends it to the rims of the door, to trap sound so no one can overhear them. Even as she sends out a pulse of chakra to probe her surroundings, she senses Tsunade's own chakra searching the area for potential eavesdroppers as well.

Sakura knows this is not a good thing. If Tsunade finds it serious enough to not want anyone to hear what she has to say, her news is probably not good. And highly secret. And probably dangerous.

But she's a kunoichi, and so she steels herself for whatever her sensei is going to tell her.

The blonde woman runs a hand through her hair. It's a habit Sakura's picked up from her. Sighing, the Hokage sits down, signaling with a hand flourish for Sakura to take the seat in front of her. Sakura does, sitting on the edge of her seat, back ramrod straight, eyes focused and attentively trained on her shishou, who sighs and pushes her stacks of papers to the side.

"I did some research," Tsunade says finally.

Sakura knows this means that she spent countless hours last night pouring over scrolls and old documents, as well as assigning ANBU to do the same, hoping to glean something worthwhile from them.

She sees where this is going.

"You didn't find anything," she says. Tsunade nods.

"Nothing. Not in our archives, at least." She gestured with her hand. "I've sent a team to scour through Suna's files, but I doubt they'll find anything more than we have." She shook her head. "I've never heard of such a thing, not where the chakra binds to your own."

"Aa." Last night's events float through Sakura's mind, vision after vision of the battle, of the blood, of the bright moon against the night sky.

"She wasn't a ninja." Tsunade brings Sakura out of her reverie. "Her physique was impressive, but not up to shinobi standards, even those of a smaller village." Tsunade laces her fingers together, props her elbows on her desk, and rests her chin on her hands. The gesture reminds Sakura of Sasuke, but she does her best to ignore it. "And that being said, there was no indication that she came from a Hidden Village at all. We didn't find a single thing on her that gave any indication of who she was."

There is a pause in the conversation, before Sakura speaks.

"But you found _something_ on her."

Tsunade closes her eyes, her brow creased slightly.

"We found something," she reiterates Sakura's words. "A map. There are directions scrolled in the corner of it."

Sakura looks straight into her shishou's eyes unwaveringly.

"Send me."

"No." The response is cutting, powerful and immediate. Tsunade shakes her head. "I'm not going to send you in alone like that. Not to a place we know very little about." Sakura opens her mouth to object, but Tsunade silences her with a stern look and continues speaking. "It's in the forest borders of Sound."

Sakura hears her breath hitch. So does Tsunade, who frowns, but says nothing about it.

Sound. Sasuke might be in Sound. He probably isn't, but even so, if she went to Sound, it would be impossibly easy to dig up details about Sasuke's whereabouts.

"She was looking for something. We don't know what. In addition, we don't know if she was working alone, or if she was one of many who intended on finding that something. We don't know where that something is, or if there's a trap involved. We don't know how many enemies she made, and if they have directions similar or identical to the ones she had. We don't know if they've already found what she'd been looking for"

If Sakura goes, she might still be able to break away and find Sasuke.

"No, you're not going alone."

This time Sakura picks up on Tsunade's hint. She recoils inwardly.

No.

_NO._

"Your team has been assigned to search the area on the woman's map. Find what you can. You'll report back here tomorrow for the official mission details, but that's the gist of it."

Damn it.

She can't leave Naruto and Kakashi and Sai. Not like Sasuke left her, left their team.

She can't abandon a team. Not wholly assembled, not flesh-and-bone, not real people, right beside her. She was able to do it last night because they hadn't been there with her, but _now._..

She wonders if maybe Tsunade _did_ wonder why Sakura was out yesterday night, if she'd somehow figured it out. It isn't a coincidence that her shishou is sending her on the mission, after all, with her own squad. Missions close to enemy territory require stealth, and the fewer members, the less likely detection is. Less is more.

But a kunoichi always obeys her Kage; even more than that, Sakura won't go against her sensei's direct orders. She respects her too much. It's Tsunade's training that brought Sakura from the sniveling, hidebound little girl she'd been three years ago to the highly skilled, deadly kunoichi she is now. She's learned how to punch, how to kick, how to fight, _really fight,_ from this busty old blonde woman in front of her, and it means more than the world to her that Tsunade found something in her that was worth honing. Tsunade's word hits too close to home for Sakura to disagree with it.

So if Tsunade orders her to go on a team mission, she will go along with it.

"And now," said the Hokage, "Let's see exactly what you mean by fused chakras."

Sakura summons her own chakra mingled with the dead woman's to her palms.

And immediately, angry green swells on her wrist.

Startled, Sakura stops. Tsunade's somehow directly beside her now – how did she not notice that? she wonders to herself – and, lightning-quick, reaches out and grabs Sakura's hand. She turns it over, mumbles to herself.

"Do that again, Sakura," she commands, and Sakura does as she's ordered to, because a shinobi must always fulfill the mission.

Of course, she knows that the mission isn't as crucial as keeping one's teammates safe, as protecting the precious in your life, but she knows full well that mission success is still important.

Green flickers to life on her fingertips, but the swelling doesn't increase a second time. She sees Tsunade summon her own blue chakra to her fingers, running them along the scratch marks.

Sakura knows she's analyzing the tissue, and the potential causes of the swelling, and is coming up with the same thing Sakura did when she observed it this morning.

It's caused by the new chakra inside her.

Not that that really explains _why _it's swollen, just that it's the reason behind it. Most likely, Sakura figures it's her body's natural reaction to the chakra invading her system, like the body attacks viral infections. This means the swelling should go away within a couple of days if she leaves it alone, but since she'd healed it earlier, it didn't quite make sense. The wound hadn't existed after this morning; she'd eradicated it, healed it so completely that her skin around her wrist was smoother than the rest of her callused, worn body. But here it was again, after she'd brought her chakra to her fingers, summoned it into the physical realm. She had no clue why, though.

And apparently, neither did her Shishou.

Tsunade bit her lip and healed the wounds.

"Again."

So Sakura repeats the motion of gathering chakra at her fingertips. Green flares up like an angry bruise around her wrist, and again, Tsunade prods it with her blue chakra, sifting through the intertwined chi of Sakura and something foreign, but warm.

Multiple trials later, Tsunade is scowling when she finally allows her blue energy to dissipate into the air around her. It disintegrates with a soft hiss, melting like steam into its surroundings.

"Your guess is as good as mine," she says to Sakura's questioning gaze. She sighs and presses her palm lightly against her forehead, no doubt to alleviate the pain of the hangover she's probably dealing with right now. "Hopefully it should stop within a number of days." Tsunade moves to her desk and collapses on her chair, almost defeatedly. "You depart in a few hours. Meet with the rest of your squad before then to discuss the finer details. Kakashi will be leading you."

That, at least, brings a smile to Sakura's lips. She's been going on so many missions with Yamato-sensei lately, and she has nothing against him. But he's not Kakashi. He's not the enigma that avoided punctuality like a plague when she was a genin. Yamato never pets her head like Kakashi did (and still does), doesn't fluff her pink hair like one would a cat's. Kakashi-sensei knows who she was when she was younger, but he knows to treat her as she wishes to be treated, respects her more, in a way. Yamato can only base his advice to her off of who he's known since meeting her; Kakashi's advice spans her childhood and maturity.

"That's great."

Her sensei nods briefly, her mind clearly on another topic, before turning her eyes on Sakura.

"Be careful," she tells her pupil.

Sakura nods and bows, smile still gracing her lips, and it's not forced.

"I will," she says in reply. "Thank you."

Tsunade grunts in response, an unlady-like sound that brings Sakura upright again with a growing smirk. Tsunade notices it and rolls her eyes, waving her hand.

"Oh, get out of here," she says. Sakura giggles and turns around.

"And come back safe!" Her Shishou yells this right before Sakura closes the door.

And then, under a soft breath that she hopes her sensei can't hear, Sakura whispers, "Someday. I promise."

She turns, determined, and walks outside the Hokage's building. The sunlight is brilliant, shines in all its sunny glory down on her face, nearly blinding her in golden-white warmth, and her resolve is strong.

I promise.

* * *

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* * *

"Oi! Sakura!"

Naruto beckons her from a short distance away, arms waving obnoxiously at her as she approaches. Her backpack (a different one than last nights, which is still caked in crusted blood – she makes a mental note to wash it the moment she gets back) is secure, straps tight around either arm, weapons and scrolls and other supplies and clothes within it. She smiles to acknowledge her blonde friend.

It always takes her by surprise, to see him and have to look _up_ at him. It's something she hasn't gotten used to since his return to Konoha: his height, the way he looms over her when she'd previously done so to him when they were younger. The change in perspective is what really takes her for a loop. She's never before had to acknowledge him as someone higher up than she, in more ways than one, and it's something she hasn't been able to get over. That's not to say it's a _bad_ thing. It's done wonders for his looks, and makes him seem more mature, more powerful. He _is_ more powerful. But he's definitely still the little idiot of years ago, only with an adult's frame now.

Still, her green eyes can't help but glance down at her own lanky limbs and judge. Too small, too scrawny, not strong enough, not good enough. What was it Naruto had told her? She's exactly the same. He's grown so much, but she hasn't. Never mind the shorter hair, the added muscle mass, the fact that her body has been through so much. She's still not there yet. She needs to grow. Needs to be able to look Naruto into the eye on the same level, no standing on tip-toe.

She needs to become stronger.

She's startled by the warm, foreign chakra. As her emotions reach a pique, the chakra floods her chakra vessels, invades every pore of her body, and she's engulfed in a calming warmth, like an embrace. A warm embrace.

Interesting. So it ebbs and flows based upon her emotional state.

This is good to know. Now she knows not to let her emotions get in the way on this mission, especially since it's dangerous. Sakura isn't stupid. The chakra can potentially help her – after all, she hasn't tested it out yet very much, but it works just fine when it comes to healing with her now-mingled chakra – but it could also potentially harm her. For instance, the green glob of ugly that's welling at her wrist again. Sighing, she reaches into her holster, grabs her gloves, and pulls them on to hide the swelling wounds.

Then she gives Naruto the biggest, most care-free smile she can.

"Hey!" she says back to him as she comes to a stop about a meter from him. Sai is here already; naturally, Kakashi is going to be the last one to the party. Not that she minds. The only one who was probably here on time was Sai; she and Naruto know to come no earlier than an hour late for something Kakashi-related. After ages of trial-and-error, she's got it down to an art.

"You look tired."

Her green eyes meet Naruto's concerned blue. She waves her gloved right hand dismissively.

"It's nothing," she lies. "Just up late talking to Ino."

Naruto makes a face.

"Why would you stay up _talking?_" he questions. "That doesn't make sense!"

Sakura rolls her eyes.

"Women are social creatures. They like to talk." Sai offers a valid point.

"Thank you, Sai," Sakura says, giving him a congratulatory smile. She knows he needs the encouragement. Positive reinforcement is good for children, and as socially-awkward as Sai is, he needs all he can get. Especially when he says something that doesn't grate on her. That deserves brownie points.

"In the books I've read-" Oh, dear, Sakura knows this is going to end with someone trying to hurt the artist; so much for positive reinforcement "- I've learned that women are nonsensical creatures that give in to their whims and fancies. Like talking late into the night."

Sakura takes a deep breath, exhales, and glares at the boy. He stares back blankly, and then gives a fake grin.

"Dont. Say. Anything. Else." Her words are laced with the threat of a pummeling. It's the one thing that cows all the men she works with: threats. Of a beating. From Tsunade's pupil.

It doesn't mean she always intends to punch them, but all the same, it gets them to obey her.

And while Sai keeps his facade of happiness up, he obliges, and doesn't speak again. He knows better.

"Sooo..." Quick to hop to another subject before heavy silence falls, Naruto drawls, "Do you think you know what we'll find?"

Sakura blinks. She realizes her teammates have probably been briefed on most of her story (minus the added chakra, which only Kakashi will know of) and are probably curious as to her thoughts. She doesn't know, though.

"My mind's been on other things, truthfully," she admits. "I haven't given it much thought."

She hasn't given it any thought. Not much besides a road that may lead to Sound. She doesn't know if her teammates are aware of the proximity of Sound to their specified mission location, but since Naruto hasn't mentioned Sasuke, she figures Tsunade most likely considers that to be classified information.

But then why did she mention it to Sakura? She inwardly frowns at this realization. It's troubling. Why would Tsunade keep it a secret from Naruto but not her?

Of course, the answer presents itself pretty quickly: Naruto would immediately divert their mission to go and attempt to rescue the Uchiha. But Sakura won't. This is why her shishou told her but not her blonde friend. It's simple. Someone has to know, but Naruto is too rash, and Sai doesn't know the importance of keeping a secret, especially one that would mean so much to his blonde friend.

But Sakura has put her love aside before. She tried to stop Sasuke once, and after that, she did not pursue him. To Tsunade, this is equivalent to putting her duty to the village over her emotions, and thus commendable. If someone needs to know on the team, it has to be someone who will only reveal it if complications arise, or if they are attacked by Sound ninja.

Sakura, of course, knows that she never put her village before her emotions. Not once has she ever done so, not completely. Kakashi has engrained it into them to place their teammates above the mission, and indirectly, this encourages placing personal relationships and feelings above all else. She stayed behind, but she burdened Naruto with her emotions. To this day, Naruto will actively search for Sasuke if the opportunity will arise, tossing aside whatever else he's been presented with, because of her selfishness. She can't burden Naruto again with that.

She'll find Sasuke, but on her own. Some other time. As long as she's with her team, she won't abandon them, because she firmly believes in what Kakashi has taught them. But, she also knows that in the end, no matter how hard she tries, she can never measure up – she'll never be a real kunoichi capable of placing her emotions away, tucking thm into the recesses of herself. In the end, she's a girl motivated by passion, and she'll do anything to bring Sasuke back. Without burdening Naruto or Sai or Kakashi. Once this mission is over, she'll leave quietly in the dead of night, like she did before, and hopefully, she won't encounter another woman who'll imbue her with invasive chakra.

"Oh." Naruto's words bring her sharply out of her thoughts. "Well, I hope we find a castle!" His blue eyes are alight with excitement. "And treasure and stuff! And then, we can fight off evil knights and save the kingdom!"

"Naruto, if a civilization were there, they'd be on the map," Sakura points out gently. "If we find a castle, it'll probably be an abandoned one."

His eyes widen comically. "Then we could search the ruins! That would be so fun!"

She has to smile. He's still so pure, so innocent despite the bloody, harsh shinobi world they reside in, and it's so admirable of him to see the world in such a childish, polarized way: enemies and heroes, glowing castles and ancient ruins. The world isn't like that, but he doesnt need to know this. It would somehow change him, if he truly saw that. She thinks so, anyway. She loves Naruto's simplicity. As long as Naruto is Naruto, she knows that all is right with the world, no matter what she's been through.

"Maybe, Naruto," she replies. "Maybe."

"Maybe what?"

Responding on instinct, the three friends turn as one, hair trailing behind them, to find their masked mentor staring at them. His small backpack is hanging from one shoulder, and his mask, as always, completely covers his left eye. His right is twinkling with a bit of amusement.

"Naruto is under the impression that we're headed towards some ruins." Sakura's the first to respond.

Kakashi's eyebrow raises.

"Perhaps," he says ambiguously, leaving Naruto's imagination to run rampant. "Everyone ready to go?"

The three teammates affirm this together with a unison "Hai." Kakashi nods approvingly, and turns around, looking back at them over his shoulder.

"Good." He raises his right hand slowly, and snaps his fingers, pointing in the direction of the village gates. "Let's go."

And they head out, walking together towards the location marked on the woman's map.

* * *

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**A/N: Yay, an update! :D Thank you for your patience and support! School's a roller coaster for me right now... I'm just trying to juggle all my Pre-AP and AP classes so I can graduate, but alas, seioritis has struck hard. Don't worry, though, because that means I'm just writing more often than I should be! XD So it's not a bad thing for you guys, I guess. :P I really love this story, though. It's odd; I usually write for Hinata, but the really awesome stories for me are Sakura ones. I don't know why. **

**Anyways, I'm so glad you took the time to read this. Review, fave, and/or watch. Thanks!**


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